Auto-lead Data Format (ADF)

[Alexander Lau]

@craigh

W3 is well known, goes without saying, but https://www.w3.org/community/gao/ (includes a bunch of links to STAR and better standards)

AUTOMOTIVE ONTOLOGY COMMUNITY GROUP
The Automotive Ontology Working Group is an informal group of individuals and corporations who want to advance the use of shared conceptual structures in the form of Web ontologies for better data interoperability in the automotive industry, and this at Web scale. In particular, we want to develop extension proposals for schema.org so that automotive information can be better understood by search engines and OWL Web ontologies for the automotive industry. Also, we want to provide a forum for bringing together researchers and practitioners who are working on advancing the field.

 

[Alexander Lau]

@Rick Buffkin I am documenting how this ADF and sales lead tool works. I am new to this space and having hard time find some of this knowledge that you guys have in this space. Not planning to spam anyone, no no no. This is home grown application that will reside in dealer website. Sorry I was away for couple weeks so couldn't respond to your message.

@craigh Thank you for sharing the email example. I am going to explore that more.

Is there a open source or free version of DMS or CRM that could be used for testing these emails? Thanks.

I don't know of any decent "open-source" CRMs in the automotive world, it's just not how it rolls. However, there are plenty of vertical-independent / general open source CRMs out there, that probably absorb many types of formats. I know of a small dealer that uses ZOHO just dandy!

http://blog.capterra.com/free-and-open-source-crm/

 

[craigh]

You won't likely find a free CRM that supports ADF due to the fact that it's an automotive specific format.
That said, it's basic XML - you can validate the XML and if all your identifiers match properly you should be ok.
We've been doing ADF for years and we still get the odd vendor that forces us to customize one field or value to suit their system better.

 

[desiondarun]

@craigh @Rick Buffkin thank You!
Does it matter to CRM systems, if you have an XML that goes into an attachment and also in the body of the email? or can you have both in that email? What is the standard name for the attached XML?

Documentation on ADF contains, mechanism to transfer ADF. How do you decide which to develop when you don't have a test CRM, like in my situation? Any advice?

1. A MIME/SMTP email will be sent to an Internet email address furnished by the party
wishing to receive such leads. This will be a multipart MIME email. There will be one
message part that is of type application/xml , and this is the ADF formatted lead. Another
message part could contain a human-readable text version of the lead. Other message
parts are optional, such as an HTML version of the lead.
2. A simple email will be sent to an Internet email address furnished by the party wishing
to receive such leads. The ADF lead will be the entire body of the email. No additional
commentary should be included in the lead.

@Alexander Lau thank you!

 

[Rick Buffkin]

@desiondarun
You shouldn't have to send a plain text version if your already sending a ADF version. The CRM will parse the ADF version so the dealer can read it.

Some of the forms on our group website I have a hard time systematically routing via the website provider. So, to overcome this issue, I have the XML / ADF version of the lead sent to my inbox and I have rules set up to check for keywords inside the body of the email. If content in the email contains the name for one of our dealerships, that email gets automatically forwarded to the leads email address for that particular CRM the store is using. Here is an example:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?ADF version="1.0"?>
<adf>
<prospect status="new">
<id sequence="1" source="Orginating Source for the Lead"><![CDATA["Your Lead Id Here"]]></id>
<requestdate>2017-04-17T21:11:19-00:00</requestdate>
<vehicle interest="buy" status="used">
<year><![CDATA[2013]]></year>
<make><![CDATA[Ford]]></make>
<model><![CDATA[Explorer]]></model>
<vin><![CDATA[]]></vin>
<stock><![CDATA[]]></stock>
<trim><![CDATA[]]></trim>
<doors><![CDATA[]]></doors>
<bodystyle><![CDATA[]]></bodystyle>
<transmission><![CDATA[]]></transmission>
<odometer status="unknown" units="mi"><![CDATA[200000]]></odometer>
<imagetag><![CDATA[]]></imagetag>
<price type="quote" currency="USD"><![CDATA[200000]]></price>
<pricecomments><![CDATA[]]></pricecomments>
<comments><![CDATA[]]></comments>
</vehicle>
<customer>
<contact>
<name part="first"><![CDATA[Customer First Name]]></name>
<name part="last"><![CDATA[Customer Last Name]]></name>
<email><![CDATA[Customer Email address ]]></email>
<phone type="voice" time="nopreference"><![CDATA[Customer Contact Phone Here]]></phone>
<address>
<street line="1"><![CDATA[]]></street>
<street line="2"><![CDATA[]]></street>
<city><![CDATA[]]></city>
<regioncode><![CDATA[]]></regioncode>
<postalcode><![CDATA[Zipcode Here]]></postalcode>
<country><![CDATA[]]></country>
</address>
</contact>
<comments><![CDATA[
---------- Minimum Highway Fuel Economy: 10
---------- Maximum Highway Fuel Economy: 60 ]]></comments>
</customer>
<vendor>
<vendorname><![CDATA[Dealership Automotive name]]></vendorname>
<contact>
<name part="first"><![CDATA[Dealership Contact First Name]]></name>
<name part="last"><![CDATA[Dealership Contact Last Name]]></name>
<email><![CDATA[]]></email>
<phone type="voice" time="nopreference"><![CDATA[Dealership Phone number]]></phone>
<address>
<street line="1"><![CDATA[Dealership street address]]></street>
<street line="2"><![CDATA[]]></street>
<city><![CDATA[Dealership City]]></city>
<regioncode><![CDATA[Dealership state]]></regioncode>
<postalcode><![CDATA[Dealership zipcode]]></postalcode>
<country><![CDATA[]]></country>
</address>
</contact>
</vendor>
<provider>
<name part="full"><![CDATA[Lead Provider Name]]></name>
<service><![CDATA[Lead Form Name / How was lead submitted? EPrice form or something like that]]></service>
<url><![CDATA[www.lead provider URL.com]]></url>
<email><![CDATA[[email protected]]]></email>
<phone type="voice"><![CDATA[Lead Provider support phone]]></phone>
<contact>
<name part="full"><![CDATA[Lead provider Support]]></name>
<email><![CDATA[[email protected]]]></email>
<phone type="voice" time="day"><![CDATA[Lead provider phone again]]></phone>
<address>
<street line="1"><![CDATA[Lead Provider street address]]></street>
<city><![CDATA[Lead Provider city]]></city>
<regioncode><![CDATA[Lead Provider State]]></regioncode>
<postalcode><![CDATA[Lead Provider Zipcode]]></postalcode>
<country><![CDATA[Lead Provider country]]></country>
</address>
</contact>
</provider>
</prospect>
</adf>

 

[desiondarun]

@Rick Buffkin Smart touch with re-routing emails. Thank You. )
Got it. And no need for xml attachments, basically plain text - xml in the body of the email does the trick for CRM systems. Is that correct understanding? Any special requirements for the "Subject" line of this email?
Are there any scenarios or CRMs which requires xml attachments? Also does it hurt if the ADF email is built to have both xml attachment and xml in the body of the email?

 

[Rick Buffkin]

And no need for xml attachments, basically plain text - xml in the body of the email does the trick for CRM systems. Is that correct understanding?

Yes! Just include your xml in the body of the email.

Any special requirements for the "Subject" line of this email?

Not that I'm aware of. Just keep the subject line consistent though.

Are there any scenarios or CRMs which requires xml attachments?

I honestly don't know. This would be something you need to reach out to the dealers CRM provider. In your on-boarding / setup call with the dealer, you need to ask them who their CRM provider is. Then reach out to the providers tech support dept and get their specific requirements for leads.

Also does it hurt if the ADF email is built to have both xml attachment and xml in the body of the email?

I don't think it would hurt. But, once again you need to reach out to the CRM providers and check. The example I provided is a general contact form from one of our website providers and I haven't had any issues with our CRM's parsing the forwarded emails.


Also, I don't know what kind of application your working on but if it has anything to do with customers personal credit info like SSN or DOB, I would not send that info in the lead. That data needs to be securely housed and the dealer login and retrieve it manually. Send the standard stuff in the lead (vehicle, name, address, phone, email, etc.. )

 

[desiondarun]

@Rick Buffkin Thank You, great info.

Yeah there is no SSN & DOB involved, it is just name and email or phone. Keep it simple.
I am going to take your advice and check with couple CRM providers if lead.xml attachments are required in any scenario. If so, does it matter if we include lead.xml in every single email to cover those scenarios and not re-work in the future for additional changes. I will share their response with this group.

 

[desiondarun]

@Rick Buffkin

I spoke with autoraptor support and they suggested ADX xml in the body of the email and subject line doesn't matter. I believe they are trusted source.

 

[craigh]

There are vendors that require the XML as an attachment.
Our lead manager has a toggle for this exact reason.